Another doe with scours...already lost one.

[cmjust0]

The vet clinic I use has about six DVMs now.. Only two are experienced with large animals, but they use Naxcel for all kinds of different critters.. I asked the tech yesterday if it was a pain for me to come pick up one syringe (blew the needle off one the other day, for instance, and had to replace it to complete the treatment) and she said it was no problem at all.. They've ALWAYS got a bottle of Naxcel mixed up and ready to use on something..

Point being...I'd say sheer volume is why they still use Naxcel.

When the large animal docs were on vacation last week, I was initially referred to a different, much smaller clinic.. They wouldn't sell Naxcel by the shot because they'd have to mix the whole thing, but they did offer to sell me a whole 20ml vial......FOR $80.

Jeffers lists it at about $28.. I paid something like $34 at my vet's office yesterday, which I didn't think was too bad. I just wanted to have it one hand, in case somebody else comes down with this bug at like 3am on an early Sunday morning or whatever.

I'll be calling about the Excenel today, though.

 

[cmjust0]

Well, the wife just called...another doe's getting the runs.

She's apparently eating and acts normally so far.. I haven't seen her, but the wife's pretty concerned about the way the doe's hiney looks.. She's thinking that it may just be too early in the pathogenesis to be causing her pain and anorexia. I'm not sure...I'm not there, so I can't see what's going on. Could be nothing, could be anything. The big wether was already droopy by the time he scoured, and we're thinking the other two probably were as well, so that would seem to point to this not being the same thing..

What are the chances it would be different, though? :/

Wife's heading back down to the barn with a syringe of Scour-Halt to watch her... If she makes super runny poo, she'll get the halt, then a shot of banamine and about 2.5ml of Naxcel right away.

If it is what we hope it isn't, we'd like to try to knock it down either before she goes anorexic or at least fast enough that she'll get back to food and water quickly enough for us not to have to worry so much about dehydration and shock and bringing her inside to keep warm, etc..

Ugh..

 

[cmjust0]

Wife went ahead and gave the Scour-Halt. I left it to her judgement, and she decided it was better to do it than not do it. We're probably both a little jumpy right now, but I certainly do trust her judgement.

The doe's out grazing now with everyone else in a light mist, which is somewhat unusual for all of them. If this doe had the least bit of appetite suppression, she'd surely have stayed in the barn as she's a bit of an "independent thinker" to begin with. She'd have no problem laying down in the barn by herself if she wanted to, sick or not.

If the Scour-Halt does what we've found it to be extremely good at doing, we may never really know if she was headed in the direction the others were headed. The question then becomes whether or not you treat pre-emptively with Naxcel, or do you just see what happens..

Well...we're gonna treat pre-emptively. Reason being, we never really knew where the others "went" when they headed that way, because the cultures were inconclusive.. We don't even know if the Naxcel helped them, save for the fact that the two who lived long enough to get more than one round are still living..

What can it hurt, right?

Well, I can think of a few things, but...oh well. She's getting it anyway.

:/

 

[ksalvagno]

This is all very interesting. I really wonder what is going through your herd. I hope everyone ends up ok.

All I can say is, do what you gotta do. Especially since they can't find what is wrong.

Maybe your wife is seeing the signs earlier because she is more sensitive to it now and almost looking for it.

Is there anything airborne going on in your area with cattle, goats or alpacas? Some problems any ruminant can catch.

What about Coronavirus? How about a super coccidia like Eimeria macusaniensis (Emac)? How about Cryptosporidiosis?

Good luck with them all. Hopefully it will quickly run its course and move on to another farm.

 

[lilhill]

Whatever this thing is, I hope you can stay ahead of it. At least they are in good hands. Hang in there!

 

[cmjust0]

One of two things happened with this doe... Either:

A) this was a false alarm, or
B) the organism is extremely susceptible to spectinomycin.

The doe never quit grazing and eating hay...actually, I don't think I've ever seen her eat more voraciously as she did last night. By the time I got home and went out to see her, she was making segmented turds. Kinda somewhere between loafy and clumpy pellets. The kind you simply keep an eye on, if everything else is fine..

We went back and forth, then decided against giving Naxcel. She was up, alert, eating like a horse, had a full rumen, and wasn't scouring per se....she just didn't seem like a goat that needed a big strong antibiotic like Naxcel. We checked on them up until about 1am last night and she never seemed off at all.

I kinda doubt that it was a false alarm...what would be the chances? My wife feels the same way, believing this doe was eventually headed down the same path as the others, but that the Scour-Halt stopped the pathogenesis..

I mean, there are farms around here where a sizeable percentage of their goats are in a constant state of runny scour from one thing or another (parasites, quick dietary changes, stress, etc), but we're not one of those farms by any stretch.. We don't walk out into the barnyard and expect to see someone with poo down their legs...that's extremely unusual here. So, to see it after everything we've been through lately would seem to be more than a mere coincidence.

With that said, if this in fact was NOT a false alarm and the Scour-Halt stopped it cold, I'd have to suspect strongly that all this has been due to a pathogenic strain of e. coli that somehow found its way to our herd. I say that because that's what spectinomycin is specifically designed to kill..

All I know is that the doe was laying snugly in the barn this morning with a dry tail and a gigantic cud. Everyone else had clean tails as well.

The whole thing's just....weird.

 

[ksalvagno]

That's great that the doe seems to be fine. Hopefully this is the end of it.

 

[cmjust0]

Yeah, hopefully.

I talked to the vet tech again this morning.. She had originally said they didn't use Excenel because they had to buy it 12 vials at a time (1200ml, total -- thassa lot), but that's apparently changed since she last checked. Said she could get me one vial and have it by tomorrow..

Gonna cost just under $100, whereas it would be about $75 if I ordered it through Valley Vet...but it's a scrip, so it's not like I can be super choosy. I kinda don't think $25 is too bad for shipping and handling, with the balance going in lieu of an actual consultation fee or office visit, though.

Bottom line...the vet's gotta stay in business, and heck, I'll just feel better knowing I've got an ample supply of a strong, shelf-stable, ready-to-use scrip in the medicine cabinet. Whether it cost me $75 or $100 probably won't even cross my mind if and when I have to use it.

 

[trestlecreek]

Sounds good.
Did you get one tested for Johnes?

 

[kimmyh]

Excenel is a wonderful drug, but like Naxel is considered one of the drugs of last resort. We try to avoid using it until other drugs have been tried and failed. I have paid from $87.00-178.00 per bottle, depending on where I bought it.